Stand Your Ground Panel Discussion May 17

Hopefully you heard the news by now that SAABJ and the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists are co-hosting a panel discussion on Thursday, May 17 on the topic of "Stand Your Ground: The Intersection of Crime and Race" at 6 p.m. at the UIW Library.

With all the controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, SAABJ thought this would be a great opportunity to explore the issue as it relates to San Antonio. Like Florida, Texas has a similar Stand Your Ground law called the Castle Doctrine.

The discussion will explore how this doctrine/law is applied in San Antonio and what citizens should know when it comes to their rights. A panel of experts will include law enforcement, neighborhood watch groups, academia and attorneys.

In other SAABJ news, three members won convention registration discounts to the NABJ Convention in New Orleans next month. Aissatou Sidime, Marvin Hurst and Melissa Monroe transferred the discount certificates to students who are registering for the conference.

SAABJ's March Meeting

SAABJ's meeting on March 31 at WOAI was packed with information, upcoming activities and new members.

• We have selected three scholarship winners.
• We are planning to make the announcement in mid to late May at an event we are planning for the public.
• Stay tuned for details about our exciting event in May that will deal with issues trending across the U.S.
• Our next meeting is Saturday, April 28. Location TBA.
• We also welcomed our newest member, Jeff Jones. His bio is below.

Jeff Jones is an aspiring broadcast journalist who is new to the SAABJ family. The Houston-native was introduced to San Antonio in the fall of 2006 when he began his collegiate football career at Trinity University. Five years later, Jeff earned both a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication and a master’s degree in Education from Trinity.

Jeff now teaches Communication Applications at Lee High School and takes classes at the University of the Incarnate Word as a part of their master’s in Communication Arts program. Upon graduation in December 2012, he plans to combine his prior sports knowledge and new found familiarity with communication to pursue a career as a sports broadcaster.

SAABJ's Scholarship Program BIGGER and BETTER

The San Antonio Association of Black Journalists (SAABJ) is kicking off 2012 with its scholarship program and for the first time in its history will give a total of $4,000 to students this year. And this is just the beginning!

With its corporate partners, KENS-5, KSAT and the Express-News, SAABJ is hoping to help fund student education and identify future journalists. This new scholarship program will also provide mentors and potential internships to students. The media partners have committed future dollars to help SAABJ give away more scholarships in the years to come. Previously SAABJ only gave away anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 in scholarships annually due to limited funds.

"The SAABJ and our corporate media partners are serious about investing in the future of upcoming journalists," said Marvin Hurst, SAABJ president. "This is a process where we hope to take seedlings, if you will, and mentor them into the journalists of tomorrow. We are thrilled to help fund a college tuition in media. The prize and reward belong to the recipients. The joy of assisting belongs to SAABJ and our media partners."

The deadline for students to submit applications is Feb. 24. For more information on the scholarships, go to this link: http://www.saabj.org/scholarship.asp